Today we've added two more reviews for Showtime's Masters of Horror (all reviews) TV anthology. Inside you'll find reviews for Stewart Gordon's Dream in the Witch-House, which is episode 4; and we've also added a review for episode 2 entitled Jenifer, which was directed by Dario Argento. We'll be trying to bring you reviews of every episode, and so far we've been doing a pretty awesome job! Read on for the skinny on these two episodes, or click the link above for all of our reviews...
Masters of Horror: Episode 1.4
Jenifer
Reviewed By: T.W. Anderson
3/10 or 1 ½ Skulls
It would be redundant to say that Director Dario Argento is a master of horror in a series titled as such. However, it might be effectively argued that Argento is not truly a horror filmmaker, only that his human stories contain elements of horror, not unlike David Fincher’s Se7en of The Game. Perhaps the case should be that the Horror film is not broad enough a consortium to encompass Argento’s work. In the same light, one might make the contention that Ingmar Bergman’s seminal film ,The Seventh Seal is nothing more or less that the epitome of a bleak surrealist horror movie What I’m trying to get at is that Argento rallies against categorization, even as he embraces every cliché that the genre offers.
With Jenifer, Argento lets loose from his serial killer mentality in an effort to bring a more character oriented horror film to light. Working from an adapted script by actor and star Steven Weber (The Shining), Argento is forced to detail the lives of individuals that he did not create. This is such a rare opportunity for Argento to embrace that it’s damn near tragic that it fails in almost every conceivable manner.
Weber portrays Frank, a police officer whom after saving the life of deformed girl finds himself being drawn deeper and deeper in her mysterious and bloodthirsty existence. Adapted by Weber, from a short story by Bruce Jones, Jenifer is simply a variant on two popular mythologies, the succubus and the siren. The men Jenifer possess are inexplicable drawn to her both emotionally and physically despite her outwardly grotesque appearance. Jenifer repays this kindness by destroying their lives, and much like the ancient sirens, ultimately leading them to their doom.
Perhaps because he had no physical relationship to the story, Argento abandons almost all his trademarks, save the superb Claudio Simonetti score, and offers up what is seemingly an amateurish film that could have been directed by any second year film school student. The dialogue is wooden, the tension is nonexistent and the outcome is a foregone conclusion. As Frank, Weber is quite unlikable and prone to acts of stupidity that clearly stretch plausibility. Now, I realize that the goal of the story is to show that the draw of this woman is so fierce that no man could resist her wares. The problem though, is that Weber is so bland, we have absolutely no vested interest in his character whatsoever. The film eventually grows so irritating and long winded that it is likely to leave the ordinary horror fan astounded by the concept that Frank should have listened to his wife. Now seriously, what good is a notion like that!
Director Stewart Gordon (Re-Animator) treads into familiar territory, adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch-House for the second episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror. Gordon, who has made a career out of his love for all things Lovecraftian, delivers once again with this wicked little gem.
Erza Godden (Dagon) plays Gilman, a PHD candidate in theoretical physics, who displays shades of a young Jeffery Combs as he attempts to prove the existence of cross-dimensional portholes. Little does for Gilman realize, but his new digs are the unlikely key to proving his thesis. Unfortunately, as Gilman soon discovers, this porthole opens his room up to a world of evil witches, man-faced rats and ritual infant sacrifice. Gilman must now fight not only to save his own soul, but also that of an innocent child.
As I mentioned before, no one does Lovecraft like Stewart Gordon. He seems to have an inherent understanding about what made the man tick, and while Gordon takes license with some of Lovecraft’s ideas, he always delivers an entertaining and maliciously unexpected product.
The highest praise should be heaped on Godden, who does a tremendous job as our protagonist. Over the course of 58 minutes, Godden gives a tour de force performance that runs the gamut from science geek to schizophrenic lunatic, with side steps into romantic leading man and day-saving-hero. I’ll tell you what; the dude wore me out just watching.
Some of the effects aren’t as spectacular as one might hope. Most notably, the Disneyesque make-up job done on ratman lends an unintentional comical element to the film. With that in mind though, I never felt that it was detrimental to the story. The opening and closing shots which also bookend the feature nicely, leave the viewer with the understanding that Gilman’s story is not the first, and will certainly not be the last to inhabit the walls of Witch-House.
The lackluster performance of the Masters of Horror continues with the second episode of the series of the same name. Inherently, the series seems like an excellent idea on paper. Give some of the biggest names in the genre an hour to tell whatever story they want with few restrictions. Yet, something is getting lost in the mix. So far both entries has suffered from a sense of being a direct-to-video type movie. This is odd since almost all of the directors involved in the series cut their teeth on low budget horror films. Have they forgotten what made those films so powerful and successful?
The second story in the series is “Dreams in the Witch House” directed by Stuart Gordon and based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft. Now, Gordon has made a career of adapting Lovecraft stories and leaving out of the element of Lovecraft’s writing that makes his stories so memorable. This new entry is no different. It’s high on gore but lacks atmosphere. Part of the problem is that Lovecraft stories depend on the reader’s imagination to create unimaginable horrors for them- once translated into a visual milieu the stories and ideas don’t carry the same impact.
The plot follows Walter Gilman, played by Ezra Godden, who played the main character in Gordon’s last Lovecraft adaptation “Dagon.” Walter is a student at the Miskatonic University, a main stay of Lovecraft canon, and who is looking for a cheap place to stay while working on his thesis on String Theory. He finds an inexpensive and rundown room in an old building. There he encounters the old drunk who lives downstairs and a young mother, who is staying in the room next to his. Things begin to get strange when a large rat attacks his neighbor’s child and the drunk wants to know if the rat had a human face. Soon, Walter finds himself dreaming about such a rat, which warns that “she” is coming for Walter. The “she” is a 300 year-old witch who wants to make Walter her “man” and force him to kill the child.
The script introduces some elements not seen in the original story. Having Walter be attracted to the mother and end up babysitting the child is a nice touch. It adds a greater emotional impact to the later events, but that’s where the nice touches end. Most readers will admit that Lovecraft’s stories were often as much science fiction as they were horror. However, Dennis Paoli, the writer and regular participant in Gordon’s Lovecraft adaptations, tries to update Lovecraft’s ideas and connect Walter’s study of string theory to the witch’s ability to travel through space and time. This fails miserably as it’s completely incongruitous with the witch’s more demonic and supernatural abilities. You can’t put forth that witches were astrologists using string theory to travel through dimensions and then explain that she’s working for the Devil and wants Walter’s soul. Also, Walter’s determination to believe that what is happening is only a case of intense dreams and sleepwalking in the face of repeated evidence to the contrary just comes off as silly. Likewise, the end goes off the rails and becomes overly convoluted and unnecessary. I will say though that Gordon and Paoli have been able to avoid a happy Hollywood ending in almost all of their films and this one is no different... too bad is doesn’t make much sense.
Powerful directing can often overcome weak writing but that’s not the case here. Gordon shows a strong hand when it comes to angles and framing but is hampered repeatedly by silly or bad special effects. The rat with a human face is more comedic than scary and detracts from every scene it’s in. Likewise, the gore is so over the top as to be ridiculous. When the rat bites Walter’s wrist the amount of blood that comes gushing out indicates that an artery has been hit and that Walter will certainly bleed to death quickly, which of course doesn’t happen. The Necronomicon, the famed book of Lovecraft’s creation, makes an appearance as well but is just as silly as the rat. This version of the book borrows more from the copy that appears in “Evil Dead” than any Lovecraft story. The audience is expected to believe that a university actually keeps a book in its collection that is bound in human skin, with a face on its cover, and has an actual spine running downs its, well, spine. What little CGI that appears in film is certain direct-to-video quality as well. In particular, the ending is ruined by an extremely bad example.
So what is good about this film? Well, Ezra Godden puts in another enjoyable performance. His character feels a lot like the one he played in Dagon but that’s mainly because most of Lovecraft protagonists follow similar paths. There are a couple of moments when Gordon is able to build an effective level of tension and provides a couple of jumps scares, something the previous entry, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,” failed to do. Richard Band, another of Gordon’s regular collaborators, provides a moody and atmospheric score also. Ultimately, this is another less an impressive episode and we can only hope that the series is saving the best for last.
I just saw Jenifer and I was totally taken in by this movie. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I saw the ending coming ten miles away, and most of the rest of the movie too. I guess that's what it was, it was so predictable. I kept getting squeamish watching jenifer and frank go at it. ugh. Plus, when she lured the store owner's son, now that was sick! But totally awesome! I guess it really doesn't matter what its attached to, nookie is nookie.
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Masters of Horror: Season 1 (TV) (V)
STARRING: DIRECTOR: Mick Garris, John Landis, Lucky Mckee, Dario Argen WRITER: Sean Hood, Steve Webber, Mick Garris, Sam Hamm and
With Jenifer, Argento lets loose from his serial killer mentality in an effort to bring a more character oriented horror film to light. Working from an adapted script by actor and star Steven Weber (The Shining), Argento is forced to detail the lives of individuals that he did not create. This is such a rare opportunity for Argento to embrace that it’s damn near tragic that it fails in almost every conceivable manner.
Erza Godden (Dagon) plays Gilman, a PHD candidate in theoretical physics, who displays shades of a young Jeffery Combs as he attempts to prove the existence of cross-dimensional portholes. Little does for Gilman realize, but his new digs are the unlikely key to proving his thesis. Unfortunately, as Gilman soon discovers, this porthole opens his room up to a world of evil witches, man-faced rats and ritual infant sacrifice. Gilman must now fight not only to save his own soul, but also that of an innocent child.
The lackluster performance of the Masters of Horror continues with the second episode of the series of the same name. Inherently, the series seems like an excellent idea on paper. Give some of the biggest names in the genre an hour to tell whatever story they want with few restrictions. Yet, something is getting lost in the mix. So far both entries has suffered from a sense of being a direct-to-video type movie. This is odd since almost all of the directors involved in the series cut their teeth on low budget horror films. Have they forgotten what made those films so powerful and successful? 
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